Japanese alcohol

Hi.
For many people, Alcohol is one of the most important thing to enjoy their life. And also, alcohol usually reflects culture of each community. Here, some Japanese alcohols are introduced.

Types of Japanese alcohols

Nihon-shu/SAKE (日本酒)

Nihon-shu (or SAKE) is most measure Japanese alcohol. Sometimes Japanese politician introduce nihon-shu to VIP of foreign country. “Nihon-shu” simply means Japanese alcohol in Japanese. It is a kind of brewage made from rice. Nihon-shu taste has roughly three types, i.e., umakuchi (tasty:旨口), amakuchi (sweet：甘口) and karakuchi (dry:辛口). The mellow fragrance is also very important factor to enjoy. We also pay attention to their temperature when we drink, because temperature drastically changes taste, fragrance and hence, their combination. Their temperature ranges from 5 to 50 degrees or more. Nihon-shu alcohol content is usually around 15%.

Shochu (焼酎)

Shochu is Japanese sprits made from rice, wheat, sweet potato and so on. Their alcohol contents are around 20 to 40%. They usually have dry distinctive flavor and sometimes even Japanese people don’t accept some kind of shochu (I also don’t like all kind of shochu). Since shochu is spirits, we drink it with or without additional water (and sometimes water is hot).

Ume-shu (梅酒)

Ume-shu is Japanese mixed liquor contains plum. Their alcohol contents are around 8 to 15%. Ume-shu means alcohol of plum in Japanese. Their flavor is usually very sweet because sugar is added. I think ume-shu is easy to drink for many kinds of people. Ume-shu is also more affordable price compared to nihon-shu and shochu.

You can usually buy all three types of alcohols introduced above in grocery store. Or you can also drink all of them in Japanese typical bar type, i.e., izakaya (居酒屋) within 7$ for one cup.

Recommended goods of each alcohol types

Here, some recommended alcohols which are affordable price and are everywhere in Japanese grocery store are shown.

Kikusui funaguchi ichiban shibori (菊水ふなぐち一番しぼり) : Nihon-shu

“Kikusui” is a typical Nihon-shu brand. Most of the case, Japanese alcohol is bottled in a glass bottle with a capacity of 720 ml or 1800 ml. So they are not comfortable amount for trial use. On the contrary, some Nihon-shu brand sales their drinks with an amount easy to try (usually around 200 ml). Kikusui sales one of the best goods in this category, I think. I think their taste belongs to “umakuchi”, and I strongly recommend that you try it if you never experienced Nihon-shu. You can usually get it within \400. Their look is shown in below.

Kuro-kirishima (黒霧島) : Shochu

If you want to try Shochu for the first time, Kuro-kirishima may be the best choice. Shochu’s distinctive flavor strongly depends on raw materials, and Kuro-kirishima is made from potato. Shochu made from potato can have unique flavor and you can enjoy it with Kuro-kirishima because its strength is not too strong and not too weak. You can find PET bottle type (200ml) everywhere. The alcohol strength is 20% or 25%. The price is less than \260.

Sarai-to-shita ume-shu (さらりとした梅酒) : Ume-shu

Sarari-to-shita ume-shu is probably a most standard type of Ume-shu. It’s easy to get, easy to drink and also you can enjoy it by looking at the plums inside of the bottle. The amount of the glass bottle type is 160ml and the alcohol strength is 10%. You can also eat the plums. The standard price of the bottle type is \200.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

You can drink alcohol in Japan only if you are 20 years old or more!

Bye.